The State of The Industry is… surprisingly strong:

All together, we’d be looking at around $715 million for all North American comics and graphic novels: up about $35 million from 2011. And that growth is all in the comics shop market, which offset losses in the mass market. In 2011, the comics shop market was about 60% of the overall market for print sales; in 2012, it was closer to two thirds… For what I think may be the first time in years, the Direct Market’s graphic novel dollar orders exceeded the value of the Bookscan orders (but not the entire mass market). I attribute it at least in part to the huge traffic in Walking Dead trades: comics shops ordered at least 74,000 copies of the first volume in 2012, versus 38,000 copies through Bookscan’s retailers. That’s a big difference.

That’s John Jackson Miller, continuing to crunch numbers and make sense of the comic book industry in a way that few others manage. A lot of people are pointing to this data and calling it a return to 1990s levels of success, but Miller offers a strong counter-argument to that way of thinking:

The most frequently cited figure for sales in 1993, the market’s all-time peak, is $850 million. That amounts to an inflation-adjusted $1.35 million, nearly double the size of the current market. This should not surprise us, given the fact there were 12 distributors and nearly four times as many comics shops as exist today. But even the $1.35 billion is an imperfect analog, though, because comics have increased in price since the mid-1990s faster than the CPI rate. The average comic book retailers ordered in January 1995 cost $2.20; now it’s $3.58. That’s 20 cents higher than what the CPI calculator says it should be. So 1993′s comics-inflation-adjusted figure could be even higher!

The best way to take inflation completely out of the picture is to forget dollars and focus on units. We just don’t tend to do that when trade paperbacks and hardcovers are in the mix, because their pricing varies so much. We know that in 2012 we’re selling way fewer comics than in the early 1990s, and way more graphic novels (and, obviously, digital versions); the net being that we’re still quite a lot behind the early 1990s in adjusted dollars.

Even so: $715 million is better than the industry has been for a long time. Here’s hoping the upwards trend continues.

Rich Johnston has a very interesting rumor from last week’s Marvel Summit over at Bleeding Cool:

The rumor is that we’re going to see an Avengers Vs The Ultimates series next year, the second 616/Ultimate crossover, pitting one Captain America against the other.And that the whole event may lead to the end of the Ultimate Universe, in print published form at least…

The interesting part being, of course, the second element of that, instead of the first (Surely the end of Spider-Men left everyone expecting another crossover?). Despite the best efforts of all involved, the Ultimate Universe has been left in a strange place for some time now, lacking any particular reason to exist beyond “it’s an alternate version of the regular characters.” The creative talent for the Ultimate U also create books in the Marvel U, and the “anything can happen” mantra that once set it aside from the regular Marvel Universe has been usurped by the mainstream universe, somewhat. So what is the point of the Ultimate Universe these days – and would such a conclusion (As impermanent as it would likely be) be a good thing at this point?

Edit: Brian Michael Bendis has responded to the rumors on Twitter, stating, “The Ulitmate universe is not cancelled! the concept of legit comics reporting seems to be on its last legs though.”

Bob Harras and Bobbie Chase answer fan questions at CBR, and promise more diversity in the New 52:

I think that you’ll see we have a wide variety of genres coming up. We haven’t given up on launching books like “Animal Man,” “Swamp Thing” and “All-Star Western” because we like the unique flavor they give the New 52. That is not ending, and in the next few months you’ll see some titles that are not connected to the core franchises that mal-adjusted was talking about. And there may be some titles that will be! [Laughs] But we’ll still keep different things coming out going forward.

Specific titles/characters “discussed” as part of this may include the Creeper, Vigilante, Gotham Central, Lobo, Kamandi, New Gods and Adam Strange.

What is happening with Marvel’s Dexter comic? Originally announced way back in October 2011 and eventually solicited for October 2012, the five issue series written by Dexter creator Jeff Lindsay managed to get two issues solicited before being announced as delayed one month before it was due to appear. Then, it got resolicited for this month. And then, this weekend, it got delayed again:

DEXTER #1 (OF 5), DEXTER #2 (OF 5) and DEXTER #3 (OF 5) have been cancelled and will be re-solicited at a later date.

At least this time they got three issues solicited before it got pulled. But what’s with the second last minute cancellation? And will we ever actually get to see this series eventually?

Congratulations, David Gerrold, for the best response I’ve seen to the Orson Scott Card/Adventures of Superman story yet:

Dear DC Comics Editors,

I see that you have hired a writer for Superman who has written strongly of his opposition to equal rights for LGBT people. And I see that there is an online petition protesting that move.

Perhaps you could balance that decision by hiring an openly gay writer to draft a Superman story for a future issue.

I hereby volunteer.

I have been a fan of Superman since Bud Collyer played him on the radio. (Before TV was invented.) I can remember Brainiac’s first appearance, and Bizarro too. And I cried when George Reeves died.

I do have some small credential as a writer of science fiction and fantasy. I have published a few books and written a few teleplays. (You can look me up on the internet.) I have also written some mangas, and I wrote two issues of the Babylon 5 comic you published ten years ago.

I have some very good ideas that I think would work well for the series. I’d like the opportunity to write for you the very best Superman story ever.

Sincerely yours,

David Gerrold
“The Trouble With Tribbles”
Land Of The Lost
Twilight Zone
The Martian Child
(and a whole bunch of other stuff)

Hey, DC: You should really take him up on this offer, and not just because it’s a good PR save for an increasingly nasty PR situation. The more classic SF authors contributing to Adventures of Superman, the better.

If, like me, you’ve been thinking it strange that Geoff Johns would choose to leave Green Lantern with #20 instead of the more-traditionally-important #25 – or, for that matter, with the 87th issue of his run (93rd, if you include Green Lantern: Rebirth) instead of his 100th… Well, Johns might have had a slightly more long-term math in mind, perhaps.

To wit: The 1960s original solo series for Hal Jordan, Green Lantern (AKA Green Lantern/Green Arrow and ultimately, The Green Lantern Corps), ended with #224 in 1988. It was followed in 1990 by Gerard Jones’ revival, Green Lantern, which outlasted both Jones and Jordan himself, ending in 2004 with #181, to be replaced by the six-issue Rebirth series, which spun out into a 67 issue series, and now the current series.

Now, here’s the math: 224 + 181 + 6 + 67 + 20 (The number of issues Johns will have written by the time he leaves the series) = 498. So, close, but so far…! Except, of course, there have also been two zero issues during that time (1993 + 2012)… Which would make Johns’ last issue the 500th issue of Green Lantern since the Silver Age series launched. Kind of.

You see, here’s something to throw the math off somewhat: There’s also a Green Lantern #1,000,000 in there, from 1998… which makes Johns’ last issue the 501st issue of the series, all told – Slightly less impressive, really. Maybe we can all choose an issue to pretend didn’t exist in one of those runs…?

From comic creator William Messner-Loebs:

Hey, everyone! I seem only to get on with bad news. This has been a “Challenging” month. My wife, Nadine, will need heart surgery within the next year and some expensive treatments before that. Possibly eye surgery as well. After the carbon monoxide leak we’ve discovered some roof problems and serious flooring issues. And our stored furniture will probable be sold in a couple of weeks. So… this would be an excellent time for anyone who wants original artwork, pages drawn to order, Journey pages or anything else to get in touch! Also anyone out there who feels they may have screwed me or stolen from me in the past (a very small subset, but still…) this is an excellent time to get your conscience completely cleared at a steep discount. 25 cents on the dollar. These prices will not last!

There are those – like me – who likely think of Loebs more as a writer, thanks to his 1980s/1990s runs on DC titles like Flash and Hawkman, but he worked extensively as an artist during that period too. There are already pages up on eBay for those interested in helping him out.

Having looked at the sales velocity of Marvel’s Marvel NOW! books, Todd Allen turns his attention to how well DC’s New 52 books are performing:

Looking past those two potential blockbusters, the failure of recent replacement books looms large. DC has shown the tendency to start cancelling titles as they fall under 18K in the Direct Market sales estimates. In February, they announced six cancellations in that sales area, including two titles from their previous wave of replacement titles. A third title from that replacement wave, Phantom Stranger, hovers just above the outer edges of the cancellation zone with 19.9K in estimated sales for January. It’s one thing to have titles fail after a year or two, but many of the replacement titles are crashing swiftly and end up being the ones replaced. There are “traditional” titles DC isn’t publishing right now that might fare better, like a solo title for Robin and a Superman/Batman team-up comic, but the Batman sub-line is pretty crowded as it is.

As of now, seventeen months into the New 52, only 33 titles from the original 52 launch books have not been announced as cancelled – And, as Allen notes, many of the replacement books have also come and gone. DC needs to work out how to make their bottom end work.

Brian Hibbs looks at the bookstore performance of graphic novels and collected editions for 2012 and… Well, it’s an interesting picture:

On the one hand, it’s the lowest number of units we’ve been able to track over ten years; on the other hand, it’s the fourth largest year in terms of dollars sold. Now, as we’ll see in a little bit, a really insanely large amount of that can be put on the shoulder of one book (“The Walking Dead”), so it’s hard to say this is a “healthy” result (even if it’s pretty awesome for Robert Kirkman and Charlie Adlard!) for the market as a whole.

What we really can see is that while the top end of the market is looking better — in some cases, amazingly, crazily better — the problem is that the midlist, and the bottom, has become simply brutal for sales. A huge part of that has got to be the loss of Borders — having physical display space for books clearly are (if not the) major factor in the ability of mid- and bottom-list books to sell. Amazon is, assumingly, better than anyone else at selling a major hit like “The Walking Dead,” but I imagine that they are mediocre, at best, in selling material that people don’t already know that they want/aren’t already popular. The bookstore market for comics material, as measured by BookScan reporters in 2012 is down by more than a third of the units sold at its peak in 2007.

(It may or may not be worth mentioning that the comic book store market ended 2012 up 14.26% on graphic novels, and that’s with extremely strong periodical sales [up 14.94%] as well, so the matter isn’t “weak product” — it looks to this observer to be clearly “fewer outlets = lower sales”)

The big winner – by far – is The Walking Dead, and that and manga still dominate the bookstore chart. But Hibbs also has something to say about something that I’ve noticed/complained about before:

I think it is very difficult to look at Marvel’s backlist business as anything other than an abject, deeply embarrassing failure, especially when you consider that there was a film that grossed a billion-and-a-half dollars, and was not only also a critical hit, but a near perfect encapsulation of what’s awesome about comic books serving as the greatest advertisement for their comics that one could possibly imagine, and Marvel’s best-selling comic in BookScan is… “Kick Ass 2.”

Listen: Not a single comic book featuring a character owned by Marvel comics sold even ten thousand copies.

That’s insane. That’s you-are-doing-everything-wrong levels of crazy, and if I were a Disney shareholder, I’d be storming the meetings, demanding that they actually attempt to reach out for what is clearly low-hanging fruit. Marvel could clearly be grossing tens of millions more dollars every year if they had a backlist program aimed at delivering books that people want, in formats and at prices that they want, and actually kept them in print.

As ever, Hibbs Vs. Bookscan is a must-read. Go, check it out.

So, we already know that Geoff Johns, Peter Tomasi, Tony Bedard and Peter Milligan are all ending their respective runs on their Green Lantern titles this May, and we’re now getting some names for potential replacements leaking out onto the Internet. Here’s my question, though: Where are Tomasi, Bedard and Milligan going next?

Johns, we know, will have his hands full with Justice League, Justice League of America and Aquaman, in addition to his duties as CCO of DC Entertainment. But Tomasi has been writing two books a month for DC for some time, and if he’s leaving the Green Lantern franchise altogether, he’ll only have Batman and Robin left on his roster. As for Bedard and Milligan, well, they’ll both be left without any DC titles altogether once they’re done with their Lantern books.

Will we be seeing reshuffles on existing titles to accommodate these writers? Will they end up on new books being launched to replace the most recent wave of New 52 cancellations? Personally, I find myself hoping that Tomasi would one day end up on a Superman book, but I don’t think that’s on the cards anytime soon…

After wondering recently whether Age of Ultron was going to become Marvel’s version of Flashpoint, this month’s solicits seem to suggest… Well, yes:

AGE OF ULTRON #7 (of 10)
BRIAN MICHAEL BENDIS (W)
BRANDON PETERSON & CARLOS PACHECO (A/C)
Cover by BRANDON PETERSON
Variant cover by LEINIL YU
Ultron Variant by ROCK-HE KIM
In an attempt to defeat Ultron two Marvel Heroes take it upon themselves to create an all-new Marvel Universe. But is the one they have created better or worse than the one they left behind? The event of the year just got INSANE!!
32 PGS./Rated T+ …$3.99

AGE OF ULTRON #8 (OF 10)
BRIAN MICHAEL BENDIS (W)
BRANDON PETERSON & CARLOS PACHECO (A/C)
Cover by BRANDON PETERSON
Variant cover by 7TH ORANGE
Ultron Variant by ROCK-HE KIM
With the Marvel Universe turned inside out, who will take responsibility for breaking the world? And is there any way to put it back? Wait until you see who is in charge of the new world order and how they got there…! A reality-spanning choice is made this issue that will affect the Marvel Universe for years and years to come.
32 PGS./Rated T+ …$3.99

History is being re-written, it seems, and as always when these things happen, it’s unlikely that everything will be exactly the same as it was when things return to “normal” afterwards. As I said before, the idea that we’re sailing towards a New 52-esque total reboot is unlikely at best, considering the recent launch of new titles with seeming long-term directions with Marvel NOW! (Although, if that turns out to be a feint, what a wonderful feint it would be), so really this is more Age of Apocalypse or House of M than Flashpoint in the grand scheme of things… which raises the question, what does happen at the end of this to make it so much different from those previous Marvel events?

I admit, I’m at a loss by this point, because the solicits make it seem so similar. Presuming that there really will be some kind of jaw-dropping finale, I’m finding myself somewhat looking forward to Age of Ultron just to see how the series manages to move between the genericism (and spoileriness) of its solicits and the promise of its pre-release interviews and hype. Roll on, Ultron invasion…!

Todd Allen looks at the sales for the Marvel NOW! books so far from Marvel:

We’re still not seeing a Batman - level breakout hit or Justice League, for that matter.  Avengers looks to be retaining a some readers, but seems like it might be joining All-New X-Men in the 70K-80K range, longer term.  You can see the 50-60K sales band starting to form.

The best-selling non-relaunched title is Wolverine & The X-Men at 44.7K/43.9K.  Hawkeye is next at 37K.  Notice a big difference between the existing lineup and the relaunch? Wolverine & The X-Men was one of Marvel’s better sellers before the relaunch.  I don’t know if that’s normal attrition or some people switched their money to new #1s.  It’s something to keep an eye on.

That last point has been something I’ve noticed; has the launch of the Marvel NOW! books accidentally pushed previously best-selling titles to a second tier in terms of sales and reader interest? On the one hand, seeing Wolverine & The X-Men suddenly become a mid-list book for the publisher makes sense, considering it’s far past its launch and not included in the grand creative reshuffle, but on the other, it’s strange to see it apparently lose… “importance,” I guess, for want of a better word, within the line just because of that.

Over at his blog, Neil Gaiman has shared the cover art for his upcoming children’s book collaboration with the marvelous Skottie Young, Fortunately, The Milk. He describes the book as “the silliest book I have ever written, and is quite funny also”; judging by this cover, it’ll also be gorgeous to look at:

Fortunately, The Milk will be released in September.

Brian Wood addresses the problems gaining new female readers in modern mainstream superhero comics:

I think there’s a series of barriers. You can’t just write spectacular YA or female-oriented comics and stand back and watch the crowds of new readers flood in. They simply won’t flood in, because of any combination of the following: shops that won’t order the books and/or run a shop that invites this readership; lack of marketing and outreach to overcome these barriers; truly inclusive stories and art that have mass appeal and aren’t written and drawn from an overly male point of view; hostile male fanboys ready to shut newbie women down for expressing an interest; and the entrenched social stigma that comics have always carried. It’s a ridiculous situation, and even the most targeted attempts, like the DC Minx line for one example, will only work a little bit.

What’s the answer? I don’t know. “X-Men” #1 is a step in the right direction, but at the same time that book, and others like it, will be outmatched on the shelves that month by dozens of other books that take us many steps in the wrong direction. So while I don’t know what the magic bullet answer is, I think its something that can’t happen on the comic book page alone, it has to be a social change, within the publishers, within the direct market, and within the readership.

But let’s take a look at the effort Marvel’s doing in these very recent months, with this book, with “Fearless Defenders,” with “Captain Marvel,” with “Uncanny X-Force,” and so on.

The mention of the Marvel books at the end got me thinking; Marvel really has pushed for strong female leads in its titles with Marvel NOW!, going from zero female leads to Captain Marvel, Red She-Hulk and Journey Into Mystery as solo female leads as well as Fearless Defenders and X-Men as all-female teams, with Uncanny X-Force and FF as predominantly female teams. That’s a pretty impressive shift, and led me to wondering about DC’s female-led books. Unless I’m forgetting something, I don’t think there’s a predominantly female superhero team in their line-up (Ravagers, maybe?), but there are two all-women teams books (Birds of Prey and World’s Finest) and seven solo female lead titles in the New 52 line alone: Batgirl, Batwoman, Wonder Woman, Sword of Sorcery (Well, even though it’s about to be cancelled), Catwoman, Katana and Supergirl (Outside of the New 52, there’s also Ami-Comi Girls and Vertigo’s Fairest).

So, here’s a somewhat hypothetical question: If we’re waiting for a “social change, within the publishers, within the direct market, and within the readership,” as Wood says, are the Big Two publishers currently providing enough material to push the onus onto the DM and readership to start changing?

Steve Lieber argues for a return to apprenticeships in comics:

Suppose Sally is apprenticing with Zack, a working professional cartoonist with a couple of decades in the business. Twice a week, she works at a spare table in Zack’s studio. Zack takes a look at the offer, spotting red flags that tell him this isn’t a client that understands how comics are made. He suggests things to ask the client and proposes reasonable alternatives to any unreasonable requests the client is making. And after the client and Sally come to an agreement, Sally has the benefit of his experience in solving some of the tough storytelling problems in the script.

What’s in it for the Zack? Why should an established pro help train his eventual competition?

Apprenticeship is a trade. Sally assists with research, backgrounds, erasing pages, trimming boards, file prep, flatting, social media, and wrapping packages for eBay buyers. There’s always stuff Zack doesn’t have time to do. He offers guidance and answers Sally’s questions about art, craft, and professional practices.

Firstly, man, Zack is offloading a bunch of stuff onto Sally’s plate. Secondly, I can’t say “Yes, this” loudly enough to this idea; the idea of comic pros teaching comic pros to be comic pros is the kind of thing that pops up all throughout comics history, and then weirdly seems to disappear for the most part at some point. I’d love to see more of it happening.

Never mind Geoff Johns leaving the Green Lantern books – No, not really; he’s been there for a long time, and resurrected the franchise as well as Hal Jordan. This is Bendis off Avengers-level news for DC – the solicit surprise for me yesterday was the sign of Nick Spencer coming on board Avengers as co-writer with #12. On Twitter, he described this as “co-writing… for a bit,” but part of me was reminded of Sam Humphries joining Hickman on Ultimates last year as co-writer with #10 before going on to take over as solo writer – something that was, oddly enough, announced almost a year ago.

That change was to free Hickman up to write Avengers, of course. The notion of Hickman leaving Avengers feels… unlikely, somehow, but not impossible. Could it simply be that the twice-monthly schedule of the series, plus the accelerated New Avengers schedule and whatever Infinity ends up being, means he needs someone to pitch in and help him? Or is this really the start of a surprising hand-off of Earth’s Mightiest Heroes?

Consider this some potentially good news for those worried about the future of Dark Horse’s Star Wars license, courtesy of editor Randy Stradley:

I think you’re making assumptions based on, well, nothing [in terms of the license being usurped by Marvel in the near future]. Or unsubstantiated rumors. While it’s certainly a possibility that the license could move to Marvel at some point in the future, as of this date nothing has changed.

As someone who wants more Star Wars and (especially) Star Wars: Legacy, this makes me happy. Here’s hoping DH hold onto the books for awhile yet.

Over at iFanboy, Gabe Roth wants you all to try harder:

Saying that something simply “sucks” isn’t really much of an opinion. Don’t get me wrong. There are definitely comics that have left me thinking “Well, that sort of sucked,” but to throw out a blanket statement that something just sucked is to invite ridicule. So to those who are inspired to voice their opinions with the help of social media, I would suggest that you come up with concrete reasons for your opinions. To be simply annoyed by the choices made by comic books writers, creators, artists, etc. just isn’t good enough. Sure, modern technology affords anyone with a computer and a webcam to be a snarky web superstar, but without an actual basis for what often feels like disgust for disgust’s sake, your web fame is likely to be short-lived.

Surely there are better reasons to think through your opinions than “Internet fame,” though…?

Brian Michael Bendis and Axel Alonso address Age of Ultron‘s place in Marvel NOW!:

Alonso: And in terms of how it fits in the publishing plan, it fits like a glove. The events of Ultron happen immediately in the here and now. One day our heroes wake up, and Ultron has won. How they get through and back from it will be the best part of the journey.

Bendis: I remember you getting very excited about adding this on at the tail end of Marvel NOW! to reinforce the idea that we’re in a place where anything can happen. Marvel NOW! is full of these “I have no idea what’s going to happen in the next issue” moments, and this added to that feel. We were ready for that the whole time.

I really like the idea of “anything can happen in the next issue,” when it comes to superhero stories; all too often, we as readers are expecting the magic reset button during any kind of big shift in the status quo. The problem with mentioning the idea in conjunction with Age of Ultron is that we already know that time travel is part of the story thanks to solicitations; doesn’t that somewhat underscore the reset potential of the whole thing…? Even the changes stemming from it are more likely to be Flashpoint-level at most, which are more… random, and less “consequence of someone’s actions,” when it comes down to it. Aren’t those different things altogether?

Over at The Beat, the wonderful Pádraig Ó Méalóid begins a series of essays about Marvelman entitled Poisoned Chalice that promises to be a must-read:

The comic character Marvelman has a fascinating – and probably unique – history in the field of comics. His extended origin goes all the way back to the very beginnings of the American superhero comics industry, and it seems likely that his ongoing story will stretch on well into the future. It involves some of the biggest names in comics. It’s a story of good versus evil, of heroes and villains, and of any number of acts of plagiarism and casual breaches of copyright.

I’m completely fascinated with the history and ongoing story of Marvelman – so much so that I’ve spent a lot of years tracking it down, and writing about it. I started writing what I thought would be an article or a long blog post, but it just kept growing, as I found out more about the character and his history. Eventually it ended up as a 100,000 word book, which isn’t even finished yet – the dangerous thing about writing about something that is still evolving is that, just when you think you’re all up-to-date, something happens, and you have to go rewrite something you were sure you’d finished with. Still, at this stage I probably know more about Marvelman – and his occasional nom de guerre Miracleman – that anyone might reasonably wish to.

He plans to look into the various incarnations and histories of the character, including the odd and wonderful legal history thereof. I can’t wait. Maybe by the time it’s finished, Marvel will finally have done something with the character.